The Lake District

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After Valparaiso, I headed on a bus south to Pucon, Chile, as I had heard about the beautiful volcano there. I arrived at the hostel in Pucon, which was actually a family's old converted house, called Donde German Hostel. It was in a beautiful setting, with a big backyard with an amazing view of the hostel. The family running the hostel was very nice, and the hostel owner (German) even drove a group of us to the bus station in the morning to catch our respective buses. The town was a bit quiet, but it was nice to unwind for a couple of days. I hung out in the town for two days, renting a bike both days and taking long rides around the town. Managed to get a (little) lost on the first day, but found my way back to town. Pucon also has a beautiful lake front (hence being in the lake district), which was nice to unwind in front of and catch up on some reading.

After Pucon, I headed down to Puerto Varas, another quiet town in Chile that I had heard good things about. I also spent a couple of nights there, went on hikes and also rented a bike to check out the lake there. Puerto Varas was very beautiful as well, unfortunately the weather wasn't that great, but it was still nonetheless a nice place to be.

Then, I headed back to Argentina, over to Bariloche. Bariloche is known for two things - being the outdoor adventure capital of Argentina, and also being the chocolate capital of Argentina. For anyone that knows me, the two of these things make Bariloche my kind of town! 😊 It indeed turned out to be a hit for me (also turned out that there was a great Irish pub in town, which only sweetened the deal). I wound up staying 9 days in Bariloche, including Christmas. Stayed at a great hostel called the Marco Polo Inn that was very social and meet some really great people there, including the staff, who were wonderful. In my days in Bariloche, I went horseback riding, went white water rafting, went hiking, went to the spa, rented a car with Daniel and Rob to check out the neighbouring lakes, as well as the black glacier and zip-lining.

Everything I did in Bariloche was amazing, but I would have to say my favourite thing was the horseback riding tour that I went on. Our guide was Martin, an Argentinian that lived in Austria for a couple of years and reallly loves Bariloche. One of my favourite things about Argentina is how proud the people are of their country - and they should be - the people are friendly and so welcoming, and the country is absolutely beautiful The views on our horseback riding tour were spectacular - galloping across a mountain, overlooking the town of Bariloche is something I'll never forget, it was amazing! White water rafting was also very cool, the rapids in Bariloche were quite a bit higher and rougher than the ones in Mendoza, and it was quite an adventurous trip. As well, the mountains surrounding the river we rafted down in Bariloche were very amazing.

Definately got into a steak-a-day habit in Bariloche. Discovered a wondeful steakhouse called Alberto's - Alberto has FOUR resturants in Bariloche - two steakhouses in town, a steakhouse on the lake, and an Italian place in town as well. The people I met at the hostel liked steak as much as I did, and hence we went out for a lot of steak - including for Christmas dinner! That was the first time I had steak, not turkey, for Christmas, and it was delicious. Being away from home on Christmas for the first time was a bit sad, I missed my family a lot. But, it was nice to meet such great people at the hostel and spend Christmas with them.

Another cool thing that happened in Bariloche was that I met a couple from Colombia that were on vacation in Bariloche. My friend Daniel and I were telling them that we had both been to Colombia, and both raved about Colombia. Daniel liked Colombia as much as I did, and also had a great time. We were telling them how we've both met backpackers that were travelling north and intending on ending their trips in Peru or Ecuador, and how we were spreading the word that Colombia is GREAT and not to be missed after exploring the Andean countries - the people are friendly, there's so much to see, and that its no more unsafe than the rest of South America (ironically, the only place I got robbed in South America was in Bariloche, Argentina of all places - pretty much the last place one would expect). These people were so touched that travellers have such a great time in Colombia and were saying that they really want more tourists to come experience Colombia, because the more people that visit, the more people will see that Colombia is quite safe, and more people will work in tourism instead of resorting to unsafer ways to make money (i.e. being involved in the drug trade and guerilla activity). They even gave me their contact info and insisted that I come stay with them in Bogota should my travels ever bring me back to Colombia, just to give you an idea of how friendly the Colombians are! So please, if you do ever plan to visit South America, don't overlook Colombia, its an amazing place to go see (before the rest of the tourists discover it!).

After so long in Bariloche, I finally left to head down to Patagonia, starting in Trevelin - will recap in my next entry.

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Photos

Pucon
Volcano and lake front